Worlds Apart
by IF-HBomb
Summary: Slight AU where a certain player from SAO was under surveillance by Akihiko Kayaba. The government discovered this surveillance, and now everyone is able to watch Kirito progress through SAO. What does Suguha think as she watches her brother face death? Inspired by the song "Worlds Apart" by Seven Lions. Intended Oneshot.
1. Worlds Apart

This takes place in a slight AU that's explained in the first part of the piece. Inspired by the song "Worlds Apart" by Seven Lions.

Might add another couple of chapters if people want, detailing more of Suguha's POV through the rest of SAO. This was intended to be a oneshot, though.

Worlds Apart

Suguha sat beside Kazuto and his friend Asuna as they ate a picnic lunch on the seventy fourth floor. Of course, she wasn't really with them in SAO. Several months into the death game, the government's virtual division discovered that Akihiko Kayaba had set up a system to monitor a particular player's progress in the game.

This player had been the highest ranked beta tester, and apparently Kayaba had developed somewhat of an interest in him. So, in one of Kayaba's laboratories, a smaller server received a constant stream of data from the official Sword Art Online servers. All of the data from Kirito's avatar and surroundings was sent to this server. It took the government another few months of experimenting, along with the release of the Amusphere, but they finally managed to convert the raw data into a three dimensional rendering of Kirito's surroundings. If someone had an Amusphere, and they opened a link to the live stream the government put out all day and night, they could log in and watch a holographic recreation of what was going on in Sword Art Online at that exact moment.

Suguha had originally been interested in the idea, but it wasn't for several weeks after the government released the stream that she learned that her brother, Kazuto, was actually the player everyone was watching. With that knowledge, she had practically sprinted to the nearest electronics store to purchase Amuspheres for her and her parents.

Reflecting back on the last year and a half of watching her brother fight for his life every day, Suguha had to admit that it was both a blessing and a curse to be able to see what was going on in his world. On one hand, it set her at ease to be able to log in at any time and see that he was usually doing fine. At first she had been constantly terrified for him as she watched him engage in near constant life-or-death fights with terrifying monsters and even other players. She still was scared when he fought, but she at least understood that he was one of, if not the strongest player in the game. He wasn't about to die so easily.

On the other hand, it was a terrible experience to see him come close to death so often. She had watched the only guild he had been apart of get killed, and the effect it had on him. He had become so depressed, taking extreme risks with his leveling. No matter how skilled he was, she couldn't ever shake the feeling that if he made a couple of mistakes in his swordsmanship, impressive as it was, he could be taken from her forever.

That didn't even take into account the public opinion of him. Since her brother was the only player Kayaba had monitored, he was the only way anyone had to get information about what was going on inside SAO. Everyone that had a family member trapped in the game, and anyone else who had even a remote interest in the topic, had gone out to buy Amuspheres and were constantly watching. She had heard on the news that the average number of people watching exceeded a hundred thousand, and that jumped into the millions when a boss battle or something important was happening. Also, Kirito was the biggest talking point on all of the forums online. People made highlight videos of his amazing swordsmanship or the times he saved other players, while others openly criticized how selfish he acted at times.

It caught up to her at school, too, after she was caught being a little too concerned about Kirito on one particular boss battle day. Now that the people around her knew that he was her brother, everyone always asked her questions about him or wanted to know what she thought about the latest thing Kirito did in the game.

She sighed. None of that mattered now, as she sat beside him and Asuna while they ate Asuna's home made sandwiches. She had realized a few weeks ago, that contrary to her friends belief, the hardest times for her were when she was right next to Kazuto in the virtual world, but still worlds apart.

To be so close to him...but not be able to reach out and touch his hand—if she tried her hand would just phase through his as if he didn't exist—was truly a terrible experience. Still, she would reach for his hand every time she was near him, and he would never reach back. Once, she had even stood beneath Asuna's hologram and tried to hold her hand out like Asuna's, in an attempt to feel like her brother was holding her own hand, not the hand of the chestnut haired girl that obviously had a crush on him.

 _Why?_ she found herself asking again, as she watched the two of them laugh as they ate. Her brother had become animated about the seasoning Asuna used for the sandwiches, causing the other girl to laugh in embarrassment.

The question of why was what she had originally hoped to understand by coming to this world. Why had Akihiko Kayaba stolen her brother from her? Why was she allowed to stand next to him, but not touch his hand? Why was his silent presence absent from their home?

 _Why are we worlds apart?_

In the eighteen months she had observed the game, she had never been able to even come close to finding an answer to that question. In fact, nobody on the outside had any idea what Kayaba was doing. It had become a heated topic on the internet—where was the mastermind behind Sword Art Online, and what was he doing?

From what she could tell, there were two main theories. First, that Kayaba was merely managing the game from afar and not directly interacting with it, or that Kirito hadn't encountered him. Otherwise, people seemed convinced that he was hiding as one of the players, taking part in his own death game. Even if that were the case, he was doing a damn good job of staying hidden, as the lists of probable players included pretty much everyone fighting on the front lines.

Suguha had long since lost hope that an answer would ever come to that question, but she continued to ask it anyway. Maybe if she just asked it enough, she might find an answer.

Then, to her surprise, she was brought back from her philosophic questioning as a group of players showed up. It wasn't common for her brother to encounter other groups of clearing players except in boss fights, as he would either solo the dungeon before anyone else got there, or he'd train somewhere else until the groups arrived.

She recognized the men as the Fuurinkazan guild, headed up by Klein. They began interacting with Kirito and Asuna, causing her to chuckle at her brother's attempts to keep Klein away from his girlfriend. She silently wished that Kirito could always enjoy himself like this in the game, and that his life didn't have to be so hard.

Little did she know that later that day he would come closer to death than ever before...


	2. Blue-Eyed Demon

Well, you wanted to continue this, so sure, I guess. Here's the general outline I came up with this morning (one chapter per topic):

Gleam Eyes Fight

Heathcliff duel & Kuradeel incident

Yui

Kirigaya & Yuuki family meeting about their children getting married

Skull Reaper & Heathcliff

Wake up

Beyond that, I don't know. Not going to commit to more than that. Also no promises on update speed whatsoever.

Blue-Eyed Demon

Suguha's attention was pulled from the group of players killing lizard-men as the shimmering blue figure of a person materialized—the default login animation for the Amusphere's holographic interface. To her surprise, it was actually her mother that had logged in. Upon popular request, RECT Progress had implemented a multi-user viewing system. Each account profile on the Amusphere had an individual identification code, and it was possible to permit other people's accounts to share a streaming session with your own.

She had originally set up her stream to only allow three people—herself, her mother, and her father—but she eventually gave a couple of her friends from school and kendo permission to join as well, most notably Shinichi Nagata, or Recon, as he went by in Alfheim Online.

"Hey, Sugu," her mother greeted, walking over to stand with her daughter off to the side. "How's he doing?"

With a shrug, she said, "About normal, I guess. They found the boss for this floor earlier, but they ran away, thank God. They just seem to be working on clearing out all the monsters in the dungeon, so it should be okay."

Her mother sighed in relief. "Good to know. I had some time off for lunch, so I wanted to see what was going on in here. You've got kendo this afternoon, right?"

Suguha nodded. "Yeah."

Their conversation was cut short, though, as a scream was heard from the distance, causing all the players to instinctively snap their heads in the direction of the boss room. Kirito and Asuna immediately started sprinting towards the scream, but Klein and his guild were assailed by another group of lizard-men.

Suguha and Midori stood still, wondering what was going on, as the scenery changed before them. Her brother and Asuna quickly retraced their steps to the boss room, cursing to themselves as they ran.

"Why's the boss room open..." Midori asked in surprise.

Then, the inside of the boss room came into view as Kirito and Asuna stopped at the entrance. The massive demon, named Gleam Eyes, that Suguha had seen earlier that day stood towering over a group of men from the Aincrad Liberation Army. Half of them were kneeling on the ground, trying to get back to their feet, and all of them had terrified expressions. None of them had above thirty percent HP left, and the boss was still unharmed.

"Those morons," Suguha said in disgust. "Kirito encountered them earlier, and he gave them the location of the boss room, but there's no way he thought they would go challenge the boss themselves..."

Midori watched silently as Kirito tried to call out to the players in the room, then gasped when the players said that they couldn't teleport out. The leader of the army called another charge as Klein finally caught up to the pair. Suguha could tell that her brother and his friends were wrestling with the idea of going in to try to help them, but was grateful for their hesitation.

 _Come on, you know you can't take that boss on your own. You're not going to be an idiot, right big brother?_

Then, as the army charged, Gleam Eyes smashed his sword into the ground, knocking them off balance. With a terrifyingly quick slash, he sent the leader flying in the direction of the exit, skidding to a stop before Kirito, Asuna, and Klein.

Suguha and Midori both ran over to the entrance out of instinct, trying to see if the man was okay, but he disappeared before they could get there. She could see it then, the effect his death had on her brother and his friends. That, coupled with the helpless cry from another man about to be killed by the boss, was enough to bring them into the fray.

Asuna was the first to run in, shouting a wild battle cry as she assaulted the boss from behind, using her most powerful skill, Quadruple Pain, to try to draw its attention away from the helpless army members. It worked, sort of. Though the attack didn't do very much damage, the creature turned its attention to the new arrival. In the split second that Asuna was frozen from her sword skill, Gleam Eyes turned and punched her clear across the room, costing her a third of her health bar.

The boss raised its sword for a finishing blow, but her brother stepped in to block the blow, shouting for her and the other players to get out of the room. His block hadn't drawn aggro, so Gleam Eyes went for another attack on the army players, but Kirito attacked its back, finally drawing its attention.

Suguha watched as her brother engaged in a quick exchange of blows with the boss. He was one of the fastest players she had seen in the game, and even he wasn't fast enough to block all of the strokes of the massive boss. Gleam Eyes swung his enormous sword faster than should have been possible, Suguha thought.

The boss scored a couple of glancing blows on Kirito, before going for a massive downward slash on the clearly much weaker swordsman. "Kazuto!" Midori called out as he stood his ground, blocking the blow with both hands on his sword. Even by blocking it, he still lost a good twenty percent of his HP just from the sheer strength of Gleam Eyes. His companions cried out for him to retreat, much to Suguha's relief. She desperately hoped he'd take their advice.

She cried his name out when she saw him just standing there, seemingly pondering something in his thoughts. Gleam Eyes went for another slash at the now distracted Kirito, but he broke out of his sudden daze just in time to stop the bosses sword from cutting his head clean off.

When the boss pulled his sword back, Kirito jumped back. _Finally,_ Suguha sighed out, relieved he came to his sense. _Just run. Please just run._

"Come on, Kazuto," her mother called out softly. "You've done what you can. Don't throw your life away."

Then, to the surprise of both of them, he shouted, "I need ten seconds, keep him off me!"

 _What?_ Maybe he just needed time to recover, or he wanted to try to make a break for the surviving members while Asuna and Klein distracted. Both could be understandable, but Suguha felt a cold tingle crawl down her spine as she saw him begin to scroll throw his menus as quickly as he could.

Asuna and Klein followed his orders without a second of hesitation, engaging the boss with complete trust in their companion. She thought it was incredible that they felt her brother was worthy of that level of trust, especially considering that they really hadn't spent all that much time with him.

Klein was unceremoniously knocked back by the boss, but Asuna managed to hit its sword out of the way. Kirito called out a switch, and the girl drifted off to the side, clearly uncertain about what was going on.

With a wild battle cry, Kirito charged in as his extra sword, Dark Repulser, materialized on his left shoulder. His hand found the hilt, and he drew the sword, striking the beast dead center in the chest, causing Gleam Eyes to scream and throw its head back.

Seeing him use two swords wasn't a surprise to her, as she had seen him practicing the skill on and off for a good year. For Midori, though, who was only able to log in during important fights, or merely watched recap videos on the internet, seeing her son dual wielding swords was a shocking experience.

"What..." she breathed out as her son used both swords to block the retaliation attempt from Gleam Eyes, knocking the bosses blade up and leaving him temporarily stunned.

Suguha understood her shock. Players were only supposed to be able to use one blade inside SAO. Even if it were programmed in to use multiple, she doubted very many people would have done it. It was no great secret that a shield ended up being more use than a second sword for the simple reason that it was nearly impossible to actually use two swords effectively at the same time. The level of skill and coordination it took was beyond most swordsmen.

"Starburst Stream."

Both swords took on the blue hue that meant the system was now in control of their movements. Most skills were several slashes long and left you immobilized for a second or so after they completed. Given that, Suguha thought that he was going to go for a combo attack with the stun he had previously inflicted on the boss, something that would leave both him and the boss disabled for the brief cooldown period. Hell, anything else was suicide.

As such, her breath caught and she felt her chest grow heavy as she realized what he was doing. He had committed himself to an all-out offense. The fight had effectively become a race to see which combatant could kill the other first. His swords moved faster than her eyes could even track as he landed blow after blow upon Gleam Eyes, rending him for massive amounts of HP with each slash. The cost for that, was that he had to take every punch and slash from Gleam Eyes head on, costing him most of his HP as well.

The exchange continued for longer than Suguha would have thought possible for a sword skill, leaving bother her and her mother waiting with their hands unconsciously clasped in a shared horror.

The skill seemed to be over as Gleam Eyes caught Elucidator in its left hand, effectively pinning Kirito in place. With one last scream, Kirito drove Dark Repulser forward, just as Gleam Eyes did, in a final bid to win the fight.

The two finished their strikes, and they stood in place for what seemed like an eternity, neither moving. Then, to everyone's utter relief, Gleam Eyes shattered into millions of polygons and the congratulatory message appeared that meant the boss was defeated.

Still, Suguha and Midori didn't release their breath, as they could see Kirito's HP bar. Actually, they couldn't, and that was the problem. From their distance, it looked completely depleted.

Asuna, Klein, Suguha, and her mother all cried out in despair as Kirito wobbled, and then fell backwards. Suguha and Midori both tried to dash to catch him, as did Asuna. Only Suguha reached him fast enough, but was left with a terrible feeling of helplessness as her brother fell through her outstretched arms and collided with the hard ground in a soft _thud_.

Still, despite feeling so useless, she let go of her breath, seeing that there was in fact a small bit of his HP bar remaining, and that he was alive.

It only took Asuna a minute to wake him up. She collapsed into his arms a moment later, crying in relief, and Suguha couldn't help but want to join her as she felt the tears finally cascading down her own cheeks as well. As Kirito and Klein discussed the outcome of the fight with heavy tones, she fell to her knees beside her brother and placed her hand over his own.

 _You idiot...you damned idiot! Don't scare me like that!_ was what she wanted to scream out. The only thing that stopped her was the understanding that he had only done so because he wanted to save the lives of others. Could she really be angry with him for doing what she knew was the right thing?

A comforting hand came to rest on her shoulder from her mother. Suguha thought she heard her mother wipe her face with her sleeve, but then she said, "It's okay, honey. He won." Despite the situation, she chuckled. "It seems he always wins."

Suguha wiped her own tears, though they didn't stop entirely. "Yeah...but it seems to be closer every time. I don't think it gets closer than this..."

Her mother sat beside her and Kirito, gesturing at Asuna, who was currently talking to him about forming a party. "With any luck, his new girlfriend will make him be a little more careful." She shook her head. "Anyway, I'm sure they're done with danger for at least today, so cheer up, Sugu. Your brother was a hero today! Let's be proud of him, not angry."

 _I am proud,_ she thought, clutching a hand over her chest. _I'm so proud...but I want him to come back to me. I don't want the only thing I have left of him to be the videos of his heroics, as impressive and heart-warming as they are. I just want my brother back..._

With a long sigh, she stood up, steeling herself for the inevitable flurry of questions she'd be receiving from her friends at school and in Alfheim. It had already been a long day, and it was only the early afternoon.


	3. A Knight to Be

This section was a bit hard to write. Not sure I like how it came out, but whatever. I decided to split episode ten into two chapters (A Knight to Be, and Crimson Killing Intent). In total, there's a four day time lapse between Kirito killing Gleam Eyes and the Kuradeel incident. It seemed a little ridiculous to have it all in one chapter.

Answers to reviews that asked questions: 

Q: Out of curioisty, was the idea of people being able to see what happens in SAO got inspired by the stories Sword Art Online Alternate by ColtonTheSwordsman and Records of Noble Deeds by BF110C4?

A: No. I went and checked them out, though, and Records of Noble Deeds is interesting.

Q: How do you plan to deal with the guy Asunas mother wants her to marry and his plan to trap her in ALO?

A: Eh, will partly be explained in 2 more chapters. I'd have to go through the entire fairy dance arc to actually address it though, so we might never really get a conclusion there.

Q: Might be interesting to see Suguha's interactions at school, and if you feel like going back in time parts like Laughing Coffin and so on...

A: Maybe flashback chapters could happen at the end if people still want more.

Q: Out of curiosity, did Suguha see and hear what happened with Silica, and if so, does she know that Kirito wants to reconcile with her? I'd thought that would've been brought up in the first chapter.

A: Yes. Wasn't mentioned because the Silica sub-plot happened more than six months into the game, after the point where I mentioned Suguha started watching.

And thanks to the other people saying nice things. :)

A Knight to Be

"I'd bet a hundred grand on Kirito," Shinichi Nagata said with full confidence.

Suguha snorted. "Yeah, you and every other internet fanboy he has. He's fighting Heathcliff, not some moronic PKer. From what everyone says, this is a battle between the two best players in the game. Even I'm not sure who's gonna win, especially since Heathcliff seemed so confident yesterday when he challenged my brother." 

"Yeah..." the boy was forced to admit.

Suguha had taken a brief break from the Amusphere after her brother's most recent _incident_ with the floor seventy four boss, but Shinichi, or Recon, had told her that Kirito was going to duel Heathcliff today in order to try to get Asuna out of the Knights of Blood. She had gone back to watch the conversation between Heathcliff and Kirito, and was more than a little surprised that her brother had even agreed to the challenge in the first place.

Much to her amusement, Asuna made sure that Kirito knew just how much of an idiot he was for taking the challenge. But even so, Suguha was relieved to be able to log in and watch her brother fight in a situation where his life wasn't on the line. At least she could relax for the day knowing that he wasn't going to die.

In fact, Suguha actually couldn't help but hope for her brother to _lose_ against Heathcliff. She thought that it would greatly increase his chances of surviving if he were to join a clearing guild so that he no longer had to solo every dungeon. The risks were growing even greater on the most recent floors, where the monsters had begun to pose a slight challenge ever to the legendary Black Swordsman.

"They gonna start anytime soon?" Recon complained.

Her mother chuckled in amusement. The group of Suguha, Midori, and Recon were standing at the edge of the arena of the great Colosseum on floor seventy five. Given that this event had been scheduled in advance, it was expected that the majority of her family and friends with access to the stream would be tuning in.

"You should be patient. My son was never the most punctual person." 

It was true. Kirito was undoubtedly late, even if it was only by a minute or two. Well, that wasn't quite accurate. Kirito _was_ present, off to one side talking with Asuna, but he had yet to enter the arena to begin the actual battle.

They were aware the moment Kirito stepped into the arena by the sudden cheers of excitement from the crowd. Kirito approached Heathcliff, who was waiting in the center of the circular field of sand. The two exchanged a few words, but Suguha and her companions were too far away to hear exactly what was said. Then, Heathcliff issued a duel challenge to Kirito, who promptly accepted. The two drew their swords, and Heathcliff readied his shield.

"Here we go!" Recon could barely contain his excitement.

As soon as the countdown timer hit zero, Kirito charged the taller paladin, going for a series of manual strikes, all of which were deflected easily by Heathcliff. Heathcliff retaliated with a stab attempt that Kirito barely deflected while in mid air. The force of Heathcliff's stroke sent Kirito flying backwards.

Heathcliff charged and bashed his shield into Kirito's chest just as the swordsman landed, sending him flying backwards again.

"Wow, he's strong," her mother commented. "I've never seen anyone able to match Kazuto."

Heathcliff charged again. It seemed like every time Kirito blocked his sword, he was sent a bit further back. This time, though, Kirito retaliated with his own sword skill, sending a lightning fast flurry of strikes against the cross-shaped shield of Heathcliff. His swords moved so quickly that Suguha found herself wondering how anyone could actually follow both of their movements at the same time in a fight.

Even so, Heathcliff's defense was solid. Kirito's skill ended, and the two faced off with a bit of distance between them.

"Your reaction time is very impressive," Heathcliff complimented.

"Yeah, and your defense is impregnable." 

"Well at least they don't hate each other," Midori commented lightly. "A nice change from the normal fights we see with him, right?" 

Suguha couldn't help but chuckle in agreement.

The moment's pause was over, though. Kirito and Heathcliff charged back in at each other. This time Kirito held his ground as he exchanged blows with Heathcliff, swinging his swords in massive arcs at a speed fast enough to cause small gusts to scatter the sand beneath them.

They swung at each other for a good minute, and then Kirito scored a glancing blow to his opponent's cheek. Sensing his victory, he activated the same sword skill that he had slain the last boss with—Starburst Stream. The change in his stroke was extremely noticeable. Before the skill began, he had been going for speed and accuracy above all else. However, once his two blades took on their blue hue, the strokes slowed down as his speed was managed by the system, but he put much more power into them.

The first and second duel slashes were strong enough to cause Heathcliff to skid backwards a few inches, but the third one ultimately overpowered the paladin's left arm, shoving the shield off to the side. From there it seemed a simple matter for Kirito to strike his opponent down, and that's exactly what he aimed to do.

 _Oh well,_ Suguha thought, slightly disappointed. She should have known better than to think her brother would lose. He never loses.

 _Or does he..._

She stared in shock as Kirito's blow was blocked by Heathcliff, and then in the second of disability that Kirito was left in from his sword skill, the paladin stabbed him through the shoulder, securing the win of the duel.

"What the hell was that?" she demanded.

It was as if Heathcliff's shield had skipped several frames of rendering, as it seemed to jump from being knocked off to the side, to just barely close enough to block Kirito's winning blow. She had spent longer than a year watching her brother push the limits of SAO every day. He was considered to be one of the fastest players in the game, as he was one of the only players who could actually execute certain combos faster than the system usually allowed.

She had seen the absolute limits of SAO's movement, or at least she thought she had. In her mind, there was no way Heathcliff's shield could have possibly moved that fast. It was inhuman.

Her brother seemed to share her thoughts, as he sat in the dirt with his swords on either side of him looking shocked and confused. When he glanced back up at Heathcliff, she followed his gaze.

The previously friendly paladin was now scowling at his opponent with what could only be described as disgust. It seemed like he was angry at the way the duel turned out, despite winning. Did he also think that Kirito had won? Was his miraculous defense a happy accident...or did he know that he somehow broke the rules of the game and that's why he won?

Unfortunately, it seemed like none of her questions would be answered, at least not by Heathcliff. The paladin turned on his heels and walked away, leaving Kirito alone at the center of the ring.

"That...was fast..." Recon said hesitantly.

"You mean the block at the end, right?" she clarified.

"Yeah...it didn't seem possible..." 

"I've never seen him lose," Midori commented. By then, Asuna had run out to see if Kirito was fine, which he was. They stood up and made to leave, neither mentioning the incident.

 _Was Asuna too far away to see?_ she wondered.

It also bothered her that her brother didn't mention the strange end to the duel. He seemed to just accept that he lost...maybe it was just a graphical bug on the stream...

She stuck with that theory for the night, but by the time she woke up, someone had posted a detailed analysis of the fight on the internet. He had done a frame by frame examination of the final moments of the fight, and concluded with absolute certainty that Heathcliff's shield had moved at a speed that was unrealistic. It still couldn't be said whether or not it was a stream bug, but when she got to watch both Heathcliff's and her brother's reactions to the situation once again, she found herself believing that it did indeed appear the same to the players inside the game.

So, at the end of it all, she found herself with a lot more questions than answers. On the bright side, Kirito had lost and was now likely much safer than he otherwise would have been.


	4. Crimson Killing Intent

Came up with a bunch of ways to write this one. This is the one I went with, though I'm not entirely satisfied. It just felt a little too repetitive to have Suguha/Midori crying their eyes out every time something bad happened to Kirito. At least this way it still affected them emotionally, but there wasn't such a desperate feel to it all.

I think next chapter is Yui, then the meeting between Kirigaya/Yuuki families.

Crimson Killing Intent

Suguha paced back and forth in the living room.

It was the evening of the second day since her brother had his mysterious duel with Heathcliff. She had been relieved that he and Asuna took a day off after the fight to relax, and felt like she was right that he would stop being put in so many threatening situations as he joined the Knights of Blood.

How wrong she had been.

It was one of the days she had classes, so she wasn't able to log in and watch the stream as she might have wanted. The first half of the day proceeded normally, and then before lunch was over she had decided to take a look at the internet to see how Kirito was settling in with the Knights.

Her surprise was palpable as she saw the chaotic mess of posts on the forums with titles written in all capital letters, all of which seemed to mention 'Kirito' and 'die'. Some of them said he almost died, others said that he was nearly murdered. It took her a few minutes to find a reputable poster to get the whole story, trying to keep calm until she knew what was really going on.

It turned out that the Knights wanted to evaluate Kirito's skills, which made little sense as he was clearly one of the top two players in the game. His superior had thought it would be a great idea for Kuradeel to come along as well, so the two could bury the hatchet from when Kirito had embarrassed him in front of a bunch of the high level players only a week before. Again, not such a bright idea. Just reading that beginning part was enough to erode her faith in the KoB management.

Kuradeel ended up poisoning the lunch that Kirito and the training officer, Godfree, had packed. He killed Godfree first, then went to kill Kirito. The summary didn't really explain it in much detail, but Asuna came in time to save Kirito, who would have died otherwise. She fought Kuradeel, and almost killed him. When she showed him mercy, he had tried to kill her as well, but Kirito had stepped in and killed him first.

Reading that was pretty depressing and worrying, but she was really grateful for how concise the summary was. There was only a period of a minute or two where she had to worry that her brother had died.

Even so, the knowledge had left her distracted for the entire rest of the afternoon. She called her mother after school to tell her what had happened, and her mother promised to come home right after dinner so that they could watch it together.

That brought her back to the present, as she continued to pace through the living room. Did she really want to watch the footage with her mother? She could feel the emotional drain she had begun to experience from watching her brother so close to death so often. Maybe this one time she should turn a blind eye...

 _But how could I ever face him..._ she realized. What was she going to say to him? Sorry bro, I know you had a hard time in SAO, but I was too scared to even watch it? No. No way in hell.

With that in mind, she sat down on the couch and tried to relax, reminding herself that no matter what happened, her brother was alright. There was no need to get too worked up about it.

Her mother arrived a few minutes later, and they quickly dove into the virtual world. Suguha opened up the control menu for the stream and set the time stamp to a few hours earlier. The summary she had read online included the time at which the incident occurred.

The sun was high in the sky as the footage loaded and they found themselves in a miniature canyon. It was a sharp contrast to the darkness that had engulfed the real world, as it was technically night time.

Her brother was sitting on a rock with Kuradeel as he opened a bag that contained his lunch. He seemed disappointed with the plain bread roll inside, but sighed and drank some of the water.

It didn't take him long to figure out that the water was poisoned, as Kuradeel was the only one who didn't reach for the drink. Suddenly, realizing what was going on, Kirito threw the flask onto the ground, shattering it into pieces, but it was too late. The paralysis status effect had already taken place, causing him to be immobilized as he laid upon the stone. Their other companion, the Knight named Godfree, was similarly immobilized.

Kuradeel broke into maniacal laughter as the two paralyzed players laid helpless before him. Godfree tried to get an antidote crystal out, but Kuradeel kicked it away, taunting the helpless man as he did so.

With no sign of hesitation or remorse, Kuradeel drew his sword and began hacking away at Godfree, doing significant damage to his health with every slash. As he killed the man, he outlined his ridiculous plan of how he was going to get away with murdering his two companions, which made no sense whatsoever.

"This guy is insane..." Midori said as Godfree was killed and he disappeared in an explosion of polygons.

Kuradeel turned his attention to Kirito then, suddenly seeming much more coherent as he said, "You know, I just killed an innocent bystander because of you. How am I going to live with myself?"

"From over here it looked like you were having a blast doing it. Why the hell would a guy like you join the Knights? You'd be more at home with one of the criminal guilds."

Suguha knew that her brother was just trying to stall for time. The paralysis potion Kuradeel had employed had a five minute duration. If he could stall for a little less than three more minutes, he'd be free to defend himself once again.

"An interesting observation. You have sharp eyes." Kuradeel removed his left bracer to reveal a tattoo that sent shivers down Suguha's spine.

"You're with Laughing Coffin!"

"That's where I got the skills to paralyze bastards like you."

"Bastards?" Suguha demanded, enraged. " _Kirito_ is the bastard? What kind of ridiculous world does this guy live in?"

Midori put a hand on her shoulder. "Never try to understand a crazy person."

Kuradeel continued, obviously oblivious to the two people watching. "Where's my head? I better stop talking or the poison will wear off, and we wouldn't want that. Time to finish you off for good!"

He stabbed his sword into her brother's hand, causing her to wince as Kirito grunted in pain. One of his legs was Kuradeel's next target, dropping her brother's HP gauge into the yellow.

Suguha felt her mother tap her shoulder nervously. "Uh, Sugu, you said Kazuto got out of this just fine, right?"

"They said it was really close...but yeah. He's alive. The stream still had a live option when we logged in, so he is okay." She had to force the words out, though. Just watching the footage, she wouldn't have thought her brother had even the slightest chance, despite everything else he had done in the game.

Kuradeel began taunting his victim then. "How's it feel? C'mon, I wanna know how it feels knowing you're about to die like a dog. What? Is your tongue paralyzed too?"

Kirito was silent, except for his ragged breathing.

"Come on now! It's your last chance to say something. You really are going to die!"

Kuradeel stabbed his sword through Kirito's gut, dropping his HP into the deep red.

"He better kill this bastard," Midori said sharply, echoing the thoughts that she had already been having.

"A bit of suffering first wouldn't hurt," Suguha added.

Later, she would consider how unlike the both of them it was to say things like that. Perhaps seeing someone trying to murder a family member had that effect on them, though.

Kirito's hand suddenly reached up and grabbed the blade of the sword, almost managing to pull it out of himself. He appeared to have a new strength in him, or maybe the poison was starting to wear off.

Kuradeel found it amusing, of course. "Why do you keep struggling? Are you afraid of dying after all?"

"No. I'm just not ready yet." Kirito's voice was shaky as he tried to overcome the system's paralysis rules.

Kuradeel laughed. "Is that so? That's the way I like it!"

Kirito tried to fight back with all of his strength, but it wasn't enough as his hand fell back onto his stomach limply, letting the sword plunge back into his body and begin to drain his HP again.

"Die! Die! Dieeee!"

And he really would have, had a bright green blast of energy not blasted into Kuradeel, sending him soaring through the air, only to be stopped by the rock walls of the canyon.

Asuna came into view then as she used a healing crystal on Kirito, instantly restoring his HP to full.

Suguha and Midori let out a collective sigh. Despite knowing in advance that he had survived, it had still been physically draining to watch Kuradeel come so close to killing her brother.

Asuna was in tears as she told Kirito about how she was monitoring them on her map, and she rushed to his aid as soon as she saw Godfree disappear. That made Suguha realize something—if Kuradeel had just attacked Kirito instead of Godfree, her brother would be dead right now, and there wouldn't have been anything anyone could have done about it.

She quickly shook her head and tried to put that out of her mind. It wasn't the case, so it didn't matter. No need to get worked up about it.

The noise from Kuradeel struggling to his feet caught everyone's attention, causing Asuna's expression to sharpen. "I'll finish this."

She walked up to Kuradeel, who frantically tried to spin a lie about what had happened. Suguha took great pleasure in watching Asuna completely disregard everything he tried to say and go for an all-out offensive. She stabbed her rapier into the man with a level of rage and single-minded determination that far surpassed any mere desire for justice or personal hatred. It made Suguha wonder just how much Asuna cared about her brother.

It wasn't even a fight, as she knocked Kuradeel on his ass and into the red HP margin within a few seconds. As she lined up the killing blow, he begged her to spare him, promising to leave the guild and disappear.

She hesitated, but it was all that Kuradeel needed to grab his sword and knock her rapier from her hand. "The oldest trick in the book, and you fell for it, bitch!" He raised his sword and slashed at the defenseless girl with a killing blow.

Kirito stepped between them, catching the blow with his left arm. It cost him a tenth of his HP and his left hand, but he blocked the blow and save Asuna. With a wild battle cry, he activated a punching sword skill and drove his fist through Kuradeel's chest.

Suguha and her mother watched with silent awe as Kuradeel slumped over Kirito's shoulder, a position that almost made it look like the two were embracing—if not for the fact that Kirito's fist was literally lodged inside the other man's chest.

"God damn you, you murdered me," were Kuradeel's final words as his HP hit zero and he shattered into millions of polygons.

"Holy shit..." Suguha whispered, falling to her knees just as her brother did. Sure, she had agreed a minute ago that she wanted Kirito to kill Kuradeel, but she had never expected it to actually happen. She knew he had already killed two Laughing Coffin members during a terrible moment of rage when the clearing group had gone to apprehend the entire Laughing Coffin guild. There was a lot of debate on the internet at the time about how little the deaths seemed to affect him at the time. Some people wondered if it was even his first time killing, not that anyone really blamed him for killing the bastards.

To see him kill again was definitely a shock.

He also seemed much more affected by it this time, as he was kneeling down with his head downcast. Asuna had knelt behind him, reaching out a hand to take Kirito's single remaining one—his left hand would auto-regenerate after five minutes. She had hesitated, however, and instead broke into tears.

"I'm sorry...this was...all my fault, wasn't it?"

Kirito turned his head to look at the girl who was crying her heart out behind him, seeming a bit confused by her distress. "Asuna..."

"I'm sorry...but I...I should...stay away from you...for your sake."

Suguha didn't have time to process the words as her brother grasped Asuna's shoulder with his remaining hand and pulled her into a kiss that lasted for a long moment. When they broke apart, the look of surprised relief on her face was enough to tell anyone watching how much she cared for Kirito and that she thought she had lost him when she had forced him to kill on her behalf.

"Asuna, my life belongs to you. I'll give it up for you. I want to stay with you 'till the end."

"And I promise, I'll do anything to protect you too, forever, no matter what. I swear," was her reply.

"I'll do everything I can to make sure you get back to the real world." He hesitated. "Asuna, could I...stay with you for the night?"

Asuna nodded, a small, embarrassed smile on her face.

Suguha's own face had gone pure crimson at the heart to heart she was witnessing. When her mother noticed, she laughed lightly. "Hey, don't feel so embarrassed, Sugu. You should feel happy for him, right?"

"Well yeah..." The truth was, she wasn't sure what she thought of Asuna. Sure, the girl was extremely good looking, a complete bad ass, and was always there for Kirito...but...

 _But what?_ she asked herself. Was she jealous of Asuna? The thought was ridiculous. Why should she be jealous that Asuna was in a relationship with her brother...it's not like she wanted that.

She shook her head rapidly, trying to clear her mind. Her train of thought had taken a turn in a really weird direction.

"Let's see how their evening is going," her mother suggested, clearly noticing that Suguha was lost in her thoughts. "I, for one, would love to see them relaxing or having a meal instead of that ridiculousness we just watched."

Suguha couldn't help but agree. She needed to relax a bit. Maybe a few weeks without stress would be great, not like that was ever likely to happen with her brother around, but still, she could dream.

With a sigh, she opened the menu and clicked the 'Live' option, causing their surroundings to vanish into blackness and then suddenly be replaced by the inside of Asuna's player house.

What they saw, though, was slightly unexpected.

Asuna was standing by the window with the lights off, while Kirito was seated at the nearby table with a bunch of empty dishes. She pressed a button on her open menu and her clothing vanished, leaving her in only her underwear.

Kirito's shocked expression was pretty much identical to her own as they stared at Asuna. Suddenly self conscious, she covered her chest and said, "D-don't look...not yet anyway." When Kirito didn't reply, she added nervously, "What are you waiting for? Get undressed. Don't just sit there...it's embarrassing."

Midori burst into laughter as Kirito tried to come up with a reply.

Eventually, he said, "No wait, I didnt—I mean, all I wanted was to spent the night with you, and not the other thing."

It was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

Then, Asuna started stuttering out of pure rage. "You...you...you dummy!" She charged up a punching sword skill and, still covering her chest with her left hand, ran across the room and smacked Kirito right in the head.

He was sent flying across the room, but received no damage due to it being a safe zone. The immortal object tooltip appeared as he crashed into the wall.

"Aaah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, forget that last part!" He was waving his arms around desperately. "I'm sorry! It was my fault! I-I mean, besides...can you even do...that? In SAO...?"

Asuna lowered her fist, though she still appeared angry. "Y-you didn't know?"

"I didn't know..."

"...If you...dig deep in the options...there's a 'Moral Code Removal' settings," she explained nervously.

"Does that mean...you've done this befo—"

She punched him in the face again.

"O-of course I haven't! I found out about it from someone in the guild."

There were an awkward couple of moments as Kirito tried to apologize frantically, but Asuna just plopped down on the bed and glared at him defiantly.

"...Kirito, hurry up and take your clothes off."

"What...w-we're continuing?"

"It would be stupid if we stopped here!"

As Kirito opened his menu to comply, the stream suddenly went black. It was as it the feed had been cut, which really wasn't surprising, given the situation. A minute later a holographic message appeared.

 _We apologize, but the stream will be offline for a short time. The purpose of this stream has always been to give people information about SAO, and not to invade Kirito's or anyone else's privacy. The stream will resume when it is once again safe to broadcast._

"Well," her mother said in amusement. "Good for Kazuto. He deserves some happiness after all he's been through."

"Uh...yeah," Suguha agreed awkwardly. That pretty much summed up the rest of her night—awkward.

When she finally went to bed, the last thing she remembered was wishing to herself, _Big brother...can you just...not die—or come close to it—for an entire week? Please? I can't take this anymore..._


	5. Kirigaya & Yuuki

Some of you might be surprised by how agreeable I made Asuna's mother in this chapter. Thing is, you need to move past the "I hate that bitch" mentality from watching the anime, as she didn't turn out to be so bad in the end. She had a really strong prejudice against the virtual world because she thought it was both a waste of time & because it had stolen her daughter from her. When Asuna finally stood up for herself at the end of the Mother's Rosario arc, her mother came around to understand that the virtual world wasn't so bad, and she began to accept that it was an important part of Asuna's life. The existence of Kirito's stream basically made her come to that realization sooner.

As for Sugou, I left it extremely open-ended. I don't really plan on continuing this story past the end of the Aincrad arc, so he wouldn't really come into play anyway. The possibility is still there for him to be an evil bastard, though.

Also, no chapter specifically for Yui. Seemed a little dumb to make one when I actually tried to write it.

Kirigaya & Yuuki

 _I'm in an alternate reality right now._

That was the only thing that Suguha could come up with to explain the last week of her life. She had legitimately thought that the internet might break from the sheer volume of discussion that people wanted to have over Kirito and Asuna getting _married_. Yes, married.

She hadn't believed it at first when she heard it. They were married already? To her knowledge, Asuna had been trying to get Kirito to date he for a good six months, and they had only been a couple for a _much_ shorter time. Yet, apparently they got married the night the stream went down. Even more confusing, it was _Kirito_ that proposed to her, after only accepting her advances for about a week. Her brother was weird.

When she realized it was true, she had thought that it was only some in-game thing—maybe a different way of defining your relationship with someone, which was partly accurate. However, as if the two lovebirds had heard her thoughts, Kirito had asked Asuna that very day whether or not their relationship was only virtual.

It wasn't.

Wasn't her brother just a little young to be running off and getting married? He was only fourteen when the game started, which meant he was sixteen now. She knew that if _she_ had slept with someone at that age or gone off to get married her mother would have been furious. It confused her that her mother seemed so happy for Kirito.

She finally summoned the courage to ask, and her mother's reply was surprisingly simple. "Kazuto was always a bit mature for his age. Also, this experience in SAO has aged him many more years than normal. The least I can do for him is to be supportive of what he chooses when he's already had it so difficult."

Reflecting on the statement, it made a lot of sense. She wondered what would happen if SAO was cleared and then her brother woke up to a disapproving family. What would he think? Hey guys, I busted my ass for two years, nearly dying at least once a week, so it seemed, and you can't even accept the girl I like? It was that reasoning that had finally forced her to accept Asuna. That, and her unwavering dedication to her brother, even during the times that he didn't seem to share her feelings.

As if all of that wasn't enough to deal with, a little girl named Yui appeared after a few days on their honeymoon.

That was when the world truly broke and she had to lock herself in her house, skipping kendo and school for the last two days. Everyone, and that's not an exaggeration, literally everyone was going insane about the cute little girl they had found in a forest. Yeah, some people, including herself, had thought it was more than a little bizzare that the couple _already_ had a kid, but Yui's 'cute factor' pretty much won everyone over. Even Suguha couldn't deny that the little girl was beyond adorable.

All that excitement about her led to an insane day of rage-threads being posted when it was revealed what Yui really was—an AI.

To some people, it made the new couple's attachment to the child seem fake, and they dismissed the child. Others still were shocked by how _human_ the little girl seemed and were heart-warmed by how accepting Kirito and Asuna had been even after learning the truth. Regardless of people's opinions towards the AI, the already existing universal hatred towards Akihiko Kayaba must have been multiplied by a pretty massive number when it was revealed that his directives directly led to her deletion.

The only thing that tempered the rage, even slightly, was that Kirito had somehow managed to effectively hack the system console that deleted Yui and use it to save her program data to his local Nerve Gear. Had he not done that, Suguha had wondered if there would have been riots in the streets calling for Kayaba's head.

That was a full day ago, and now she was aware that her brother and his new wife were back to enjoying their honeymoon at the house they had bought.

She sighed. Even when people and monsters weren't trying to murder him, her brother still managed to cause a bunch of trouble. Actually, she had to remind herself that her last thought wasn't quite true. He _had_ almost gotten himself killed by that scythe boss he found. She had just tuned it out because Yui's deletion happened right after, and it was a much more emotional experience.

There was a gentle knock on her door, and then her mother entered. "Hey, Sugu. Do you want to go out for dinner tonight?"

"Huh?"

Midori scratched her head. "Uh...well...Asuna's family invited us to dinner."

"You have got to be kidding me," she whined.

Her mother smiled. "Oh come on, it'll be fine! They seem really nice."

"Fineeeeee," Suguha said, more surprised than anything else. How the hell had Asuna's family managed to find them?

"Dress your best," her mother instructed before leaving the room again.

* * *

"We're eating _here_?" Suguha demanded without bothering to hide the shock as her mother pulled into the parking lot of a very high end restaurant. It was certainly out of their normal price range.

Her mother smiled at her as she parked. "Yup. They said it was their treat."

"Generous..." she couldn't help but admit.

They made their way inside, and were greeted by a waiter immediately. He bowed, then said, "Hello, you are Mrs. Kirigaya, correct?" Midori nodded. "Right this way please."

He led them through the restaurant to a table towards the back that was a bit more isolated than the others. As they passed, Suguha's mouth began to water as she saw all of the beautiful plates of food that people were eating. It was going to be her first time eating somewhere this high-end.

They stopped at a rectangular table with three adults seated on one side. There was an older man, a woman who appeared to be in her forties or fifties, and a younger twenty-something looking man. All of them wore fine suits and carried that sort of vibe that Suguha always felt around rich people.

They stood to greet the new arrivals as the waiter bowed and walked away, saying that he would return shortly to take the orders.

The older man stepped forward and shook both of their hands first. "Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you both. My name is Shouzou Yuuki." He gestured to the woman. "This is my wife Kyouko, and my son Kouichirou." He motioned to the younger man.

"It's nice to meet you as well," Midori said, bowing to them as she shook their hands. "I'm Midori Kirigaya, and this is my daughter, Suguha."

When at last all of the introductions were done, the three Yuuki family members returned to their seats on one side of the table while Midori and Suguha took their places opposite them.

"Please order anything you like," Shouzou said, indicating the menus sitting before each person at the table. "Dinner is on me."

"That's very kind of you," Midori said thankfully. Suguha dipped her head as well, internally seething at how formal it seemed the dinner was going to be.

The waiter returned a couple minutes later and took everyone's order. When he left, there was an awkward tension as each person waited for someone else to speak. Eventually, Shouzou took the lead and said, "Where shall we begin, then?"

"Perhaps you could tell us how you found out that we're Kirito's family," Midori suggested, clearly trying to come off as non-confrontational.

"Indeed. I am the CEO of RECT Progress, and my son works with me at the company. We took over responsibility for maintaining the Sword Art Online servers after Argus went bankrupt. As such, we are aware of the in-game and real life identities of all players inside SAO."

"It appears that I must thank you, then, for keeping my son alive."

"Nonsense," Kouichirou said, waving his hand dismissively. "If it wasn't us, someone else would have done it. There was never a chance of the servers being shut down with so many lives depending on them."

Midori dipped her head. "Even so, we're grateful."

"As we are grateful for your son," Shouzou replied with a smile. "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have gotten to see our Asuna for the last two years. It was truly a sight for sore eyes when she first appeared in his life."

"Also, very surprising," Kouichirou added. "She had never even tried an MMO before SAO. I was called away on business right at the release time of the game, and while I was gone she borrowed my Nerve Gear to try out the game." He shook his head. "I still feel guilty that she is the one trapped there instead of me." He chuckled. "Admittedly, I think she's become a better player than I would have ever been, though."

"I've been trying out Alfheim Online," Suguha volunteered. "I watched my brother for a long time first, but I really wanted to experience that kind of a world for myself. It's very impressive that Asuna is a strong as she is when SAO is her first game. I think it's taken me a bit longer to become competent at it."

Kouichirou scratched his head. "Well, our game logs indicated that she met with Kirito at the first floor's boss fight. It's hard to say what kind of an influence he had on her, but it's possible that he taught her how to play. Also, your life isn't on the line when you play the game, so you probably don't have the same desperation to improve that she and all the others did."

"True."

Kyouko spoke up for the first time then. "Let's focus on the topic we are here for. Our daughter has decided to marry your son in the game."

Midori smiled slightly. "My husband and I both support the two of them. Kazuto is actually my sisters child, but she and her husband were killed in a car crash when he was a baby, so we took him in. It's been our general position to let him make his own choices, as he always seemed to be a bit beyond his age when it came to maturity. If he had decided that he loves your daughter, then we'll happily support him."

"Is he aware of his parentage?" Kyouko asked, seeming to be a bit surprised by what Midori had said.

 _So she hasn't watched all of SAO,_ Suguha realized. If she had, she would know that Kirito spoke to a girl named Silica about him finding out that he was adopted.

"He is," Midori confirmed. "Actually, the story is a bit amusing. I'm actually not really sure how he did it, but when he was ten years old he sort of hacked the national registry of citizens and found his deleted records. He learned how to write code at a really young age."

"Hmm," Shouzou mused. "Perhaps that explains what he did the other day with Yui."

"Pardon?"

"When Yui was deleted by the Cardinal system, Kirito—do you mind if I call him Kirito? I've known him by that name longer than Kazuto." Midori shook her head. "Well, Kirito used the access terminal that Yui had unlocked to convert her program into an in-game item. It was really smart, because a player's item data is stored on their Nerve Gear's internal hard drive to save space on the actual servers."

"Do you think he'll be able to bring her back if SAO gets cleared?" Suguha asked, intrigued. She hadn't known the bit about item data being stored on the Nerve Gear. It made her brother's split-second decision making even more impressive.

The two men seemed to hesitate there. "It might be possible..." the younger one said. "It's hard to say exactly without knowing the contents of that file he saved. Also, we don't know how dependent Yui's program was on Cardinal, so it's possible that without the central system she wouldn't operate properly."

"If you don't mind," Midori interjected. "I'd like to hear what your thoughts on their relationship are. I've given you our position, but we have gotten side-tracked."

"Ah yes, I apologize," Shouzou said. "In general, we are in favor of accepting your son as a husband for our daughter. I like him quite a bit, and so does my son. It took quite a bit of convincing for Kyouko, though."

She dipped her head. "I had a strong dislike for the virtual world, especially after it took my daughter from me. When I heard that she was on the stream everyone was always talking about, I eventually had to force myself to get an Amusphere and see her for myself. I still don't have the best opinion about the entire virtual reality business, but I can't deny that living in that world has made my daughter stronger than I could have ever hoped. I always wanted Asuna to grow up and marry someone with a bright future that could take care of her, and I doubted that a video game player would meet those requirements."

"For context," Shouzou added lightly. "Before, we had planned for Asuna to eventually marry one of the higher-ups at the company, Sugou Nobuyuki. He isn't so pleased by our decision to let her marry your son instead, but I'm sure it'll all be fine. After all, sometimes the heart changes even the best laid plans."

Kyouko nodded. "As I was saying, I was doubtful that Kirito would impress me. I hate to admit it, but I was wrong. His work ethic is something that will carry him very far, and he is clearly intelligent. Also, he's an international celebrity at this point, so he has that going for him." She hesitated. "This may be presumptuous, but when he and Asuna get back to the real world, we'd like to make sure he can go to whatever university he wants."

"You are very generous," Midori said, bowing her head again. "I think he'd be grateful for that." She hesitated, then added, "What is your opinion of Yui? We have spoke of her program, yes, but not her as the daughter that our children seem to view her as."

"I have yet to decide," Kyouko said simply. "That will be a matter to discuss later on." Her family seemed to share her reserved view towards the AI.

Their food arrived and the conversation was cut as everyone eagerly ate the delicious meals. Suguha had ordered a cut of prime rib with mashed potatoes and assorted vegetables. She hardly paid attention to the other meals as she savored the juicy steak.

She surprisingly finished second to last out of their table—only Kyouko ate slower. Granted, her plate had probably been a bit larger of a serving than the others. With a contented sigh, she leaned back.

"That was absolutely delicious. Thank you again, Mr. Yuuki."

"You're more than welcome," he said with a smile. She felt a little strange as he regarded her for a moment, and then his eyes widened. "Oh! That's why I recognized your last name at first. I read an article about you a year or so ago when you reached the national quarterfinals for kendo."

Her cheeks took on a tinge of pink as she blushed and looked down. "That's very impressive for your age," Kouichirou complimented.

"Thank you." It actually meant a lot to her, despite her shy acceptance of the praise. The Yuuki family were clearly extremely successful. It was one thing when they complimented her brother, but it felt even better when someone truly successful approved of something she had worked hard for.

"Do you still do kendo?" Kyouko asked, having now finished her meal.

"I do. My brother did it for awhile as well, but he stopped after like two years."

"That's odd. I would have thought he'd be a natural at it, given his skill with a sword."

"He was pretty good when he did it, but it was never his passion. My grandfather was really harsh on us when he trained us, and I don't think my brother liked that very much." She shrugged. "Maybe he just never had the right motivation for it."

"Like being trapped in a death game," her mother commented lightly.

An idea occurred to her. "Sooo...you guys developed Alfheim Online, right?" The two men nodded. "Any way I could get you to tell me whether or not the guardians at the tree are even beatable? Everyone's trying really hard to get to the top, but the boss fight seems straight up impossible, and nobody can find a quest that helps out."

Kouichirou smiled at that. "Well, it's supposed to be difficult. The prize for getting to the top first is pretty huge. As for hints, sorry. There's nothing we can tell you, as we aren't actively involved in the game balance or the direct management of it. The man we mentioned before, Sugou, manages pretty much everything to do with the game now that it's out of development."

"Ah."

"Maybe you could get Kirito and Asuna to help you when they get back," Shouzou added with a wink.

"Hah...I doubt either of them would want to go back into the virtual world after being trapped there for years. I'd feel guilty just asking them."

The rest of the evening proceeded similarly as the two families got to know each other a bit. Suguha walked away from the experience feeling much happier than she had expected. Also, the food was so damn good that it would have been worth going even if Asuna's family had turned out to be awful.


	6. The End of the World

Note: Updated 'Crimson Killing Intent' at the very end to match the LN a bit more. (Just the part between Asuna punching Kirito and the end)

I can almost guarantee that this chapter will get some sort of revision. You guys have no idea how hard it was to try to write a good reaction for the fight with Heathcliff. The sheer roller coaster of emotions that Suguha would have to go through in that short amount of time was really hard to try to piece together. I'm not thrilled with this chapter, but I'd rather post it and update it later than not post anything.

Also, this story will probably have two more chapters, and a few other flashback chapters like the Silica/Lisbeth storylines. I could continue it into ALO, but I have another idea that I'd like to go with for that part of the plot in a separate story.

I guess a bit of a teaser... The 'continuation' of this story would be a slight AU where Kayaba got a bit more involved with bringing the virtual world into the real world. He would end up doing that with Kirito at the end, and Kirito would essentially be his SAO avatar in real life. Seems like it could be fun to write about.

Q/A from reviews: 

Q: What!? That was from 16.5! Hahaha LoL ( Was it? )

A: Yes.

The End of the World

It was just before one in the afternoon—five minutes 'till, to be precise. Suguha laid on her bed with her Amusphere in her hands, clenching it tightly. In five minutes the floor seventy five boss fight would happen.

She had already spoken with her mother and her friend Recon about it, and they promised they'd be logged in for the fight. In reality, this was possibly the most important boss fight so far. It would mark the three-quarters completion point for SAO.

The day before had marked the two year point since the SAO servers had launched and the players had been trapped. It had been a day of sadness, a memorial for the three thousand eight hundred and thirty nine people to die so far in the game.

If the game proceeded at the current rate, it would mean another eight months would need to go by for the game to be beaten. That number was thought to be inaccurate, though, as the floors got smaller in area as their numbers increased. It was popular opinion that the game could be beaten much faster and the trapped players could be back within six months.

Suguha didn't agree with that. The higher the players went, the more difficult the opponents. If the 'Fatal Scythe' boss that Kirito and Asuna had run into a week before was anything to judge by, the clearing players were going to need to do a lot of grinding to level up and be able to clear the bosses without a bunch of deaths. She had conservatively set her hope for the game's completion at the three year mark.

That weighed heavily on her as she clutched her Amusphere, trying to summon the courage to put the device on.

 _Another year..._

If her estimate was right—even if she wasn't, and the game only took another six months—it would mean she had to watch her brother fight off death for another _six_ months. She'd already been watching for a year and a half and she was beginning to seriously doubt whether or not she could keep it up for so much more time.

 _How do you do it?_ she wondered to herself. How did her brother find the strength to get out of bed each day knowing that most of that very day would involve him risking his life for some experience points. The mental fortitude that had to require simply astounded Suguha. 

She sighed. It was a minute past one, which meant the boss fight might have already started. There wasn't any more time to question herself. With a swift motion, she brought the Amusphere over her head and said, "Link start!" 

_At least I didn't miss anything,_ she realized almost instantly as she loaded into the three-dimensional rendering of SAO. The group of players had entered the boss room, which appeared to be a gigantic circular floating platform, and were now looking around for the boss.

"Ah, you made it!" Recon exclaimed as he jogged over to her.

Suguha smiled slightly at her friend, noticing that her mother was also standing to the side watching. "Barely. I'm getting really burnt out of this," she admitted, silently questioning what made her even admit that to him.

"Above!" Asuna cried out, snapping her attention back to the players before her.

She followed Asuna's finger with her eyes and froze as she saw the boss clinging to the ceiling. It's name was "The Skull Reaper," and it lived up to the name, at least visually. It was a ten meter long skeletal centipede. The body widened as it stretched from back to skull—a skull with burning eyes. Perhaps most intimidating were the two several meter long scythe arms.

Suguha gasped as the boss released its grip on the ceiling, falling towards the group of players. Heathcliff shouted out a warning, causing the players to scatter out of the way. Three of the players didn't react fast enough and they were attacked by the boss. One of the scythe arms lashed through them at a terrifying speed, and Suguha watched in horror as their HP gauges dropped faster than she'd ever seen before.

They descended into the yellow, then the red...and then...

"No way..."

One attack. The scythe had killed _three_ players in a single swipe, shattering their bodies into millions of translucent polygons as they flew through the air from the sheer impact of the blow.

The remaining players in the boss room shared her horror at the attack. She knew that they were all highly leveled players. Even the Gleam Eyes from the last floor would take a combo of several hits to kill one of the damage-oriented players, not to mention one of the tanks. A one hit kill was unheard of in SAO.

The Skull Reaper didn't give the players any time to ponder its power. It charged at another group of nervous players, swinging its deadly scythe. Some of them ran, others stood still, frozen in shock. But just before the scythe connected, the red and white paladin stepped in and blocked the blade with his crucifix shield.

However, Heathcliff could only block one of the scythes. The left one darted past the paladin towards a group of players. Suguha gasped as Kirito dashed through the room with one of his skills, putting himself in the path of the scythe. He crossed his swords and caught the enormous scythe, trying to hold it above his shoulder.

The fact that he could go toe-to-toe in strength with a monster as big as The Skull Reaper was a chilling sign of just how much higher of a level he was than the other players in the room. Even so, the scythe was overpowering him, as the blade began to dig into his shoulder and drain his HP slowly.

"Come on..."

As if she heard the words, Asuna finally darted forward and added combined her own strength with Kirito's, finally managing to push the scythe back. "If we block it together we have a chance. Come on, we can do this!"

The scythe that Heathcliff blocked came in for another blow, but the Paladin held strong. "Me and Asuna will deal with the scythes. Everyone else, flank it and attack!" her brother shouted to his comrades.

It took them a minute, but the other players started attacking at that point. The rest of the boss fight proceeded just as her brother had called for. He and Asuna blocked one of the scythes while Heathcliff blocked the other. The other players hit the boss with everything they had, while trying to avoid its tail, which seemed to claim a new life every few minutes.

Later, Suguha would realize that the boss fight lasted for over an hour. In that time, she, her mother, and Recon didn't utter a single word as they watched with open-mouth amazement as Kirito and Asuna fought off the monster. Heathcliff was impressive with his defensive skills, but the other duo was blocking the scythe while trying to output damage at the same time. Their movements were synchronized to the point that Suguha couldn't help but wonder if they were actually under the control of one person, not two—as silly as it sounded.

Their movements completely complemented each other. Any opening was covered by the other, and every strike they landed was perfectly chained into a full combo of sword skills. To make it more impressive, it was all done without a single word between the two.

Finally, the boss fight ended with the skeletal centipede being mercilessly battered apart by all of the surviving players. A sense of grim satisfaction manifested itself in a smirk on Suguha's face as she saw the monster sprawled out on the floor, no longer able to swing its scythes of doom.

Then, it glowed bright white and exploded, displaying the congratulatory message. However, none of the players cheered at all. She had lost count during the fight, but at least ten of them must have died fighting it. Not to mention that it had been an hour long fight and the players were sprawled out across the arena panting.

"How many did we lose?" Klein's apprehensive voice came out.

Kirito opened his map to count, and Suguha felt a tear fall down her cheek as he shakily managed to say, "Fourteen of us died." 

Suguha was sure that the "Oh my God," from Agil was what most people were thinking at that moment, players and viewers alike.

"And we still got twenty five floors to go..." said Klein.

The others began whispering to each other as well, mostly about how hopeless the game seemed. However, her attention was caught by her brother looking curiously at Heathcliff, who was the only player still standing up.

She walked over and crouched next to him, looking into his eyes. "What are you thinking...big brother?"

His eyes widened with a faint gasp as he realized something. But what? She was worried as his face formed a frown and he reached for his sword. Asuna noticed as well, as she was sitting back-to-back with him. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.

He made no reply other than to launch himself towards Heathcliff. Suguha's reaction was pretty much the same as Asuna as they ran over with shock. "Kirito! What are you...?" Asuna asked, her voice trailing off.

Suguha saw why. Kirito had managed to strike Heathcliff fast enough that the paladin had been unable to block. The sword should have pierced his left shoulder, but the blade had been stopped by an invisible barrier. A small purple window had popped up.

 _Immortal Object._

"Whoa...what the...?" Recon asked, running over as well.

Suguha felt like the temperature in the room had dropped by a good twenty degrees as a chill crawled down her spine. Asuna asked Heathcliff to explain himself, but the older man didn't seem to have an inclination to repsond.

Her brother, of course, had all of the answers. "This is the truth behind the legend. The system is designed to prevent his HP from ever falling into the yellow zone. The only things that can be labeled immortal objects are the environment, NPCs, and system managers, not players. But there aren't any more GMs in the game—except for one." 

His words hit Suguha like bricks. The conclusion was self-evident, yet she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

Gaze cast upwards, Kirito continued, "There's something that has stuck in the back of my mind ever since I came here. I figured he had to be watching us from somewhere, managing and fine-tuning the world. But I forgot a basic psychological fact, something that even a kid knows." He paused a long moment for effect, looking directly at Heathcliff. "There's nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG. Isn't that right, Akihiko Kayaba?"

Heathcliff maintained his passive expression for a bit longer as the other players stared in shock. Asuna asked him if it was true, and finally Heathcliff tilted his head. "...Will you at least tell me how you figured it out?" Suguha wanted to know that as well, though not as much as she wanted her brother to shove a sword through the man then and there.

"I first noticed something was off during our duel. You moved too fast in that final moment."

 _So he did notice it,_ she realized. _Odd that he never brought it up before now..._

"I should have known. That was a painful failure for me. I was so overwhelmed by your attack, I had no choice but to use the system's assistance." Finally, a grimace appeared on the man's face. "My plan was to not reveal myself until the ninety-fifth floor had been reached. But alas..." 

The paladin—no, the scientist—turned his head to look at the others in the room, surveying them like a king would look at his subjects. "Yes, I am Akihiko Kayaba. And I am this game's final boss, the one who should have awaited you on the top floor." 

Asuna looked like she was going to faint, but Kirito held her steady. Suguha found herself agreeing wholeheartedly with her brother as he said, "I don't think much of your taste. The greatest player in the game turns hell and becomes the final boss?" It was so cliché.

"But it's a compelling scenario, is it not? We had fun, but I wasn't expecting to be exposed just three-quarters of the way through. I had you pegged as the biggest wild-card element in the game, but even my estimates were off." 

He shrugged simply. "I'd always expected that you would be the one to confront me in the end. Out of the ten unique skills in the game, Dual Blades is the one given to the player with the quickest response time. That player should have been the one to stand before the final villian, whether triumphant or beaten. But you exhibited power beyond my expectations. Both in the speed of your attacks and the sharpness of your observation. But..I suppose having one's expectations betrayed is one of the best features of an online RPG."

"Hey," her mother called out, tapping her shoulder. "If he's the game's final boss, doesn't that mean if he dies, the game is over? Couldn't they all just gang up on him and kill him now?" 

Suguha hadn't thought of that, but even it were true...she shook her head. "No, it wouldn't work. He's a GM, and he's invulnerable." As if to prove her point, Heathcliff opened a system window and paralyzed all of the players in the room, except for Kirito, who was now holding Asuna in his arms.

"What are you doing? Killing everyone here to cover up your evil deeds?"

"Hardly. I would not be that cruel," Kayaba said with a smile.

 _Cruel?_ Suguha screamed internally. _You trapped ten thousand people in a death game for your own amusement, you sick bastard!_

Oblivious to her hatred, Kayaba continued, "But I am left with no other choice. I must accelerate my plans and await your visit at the Ruby Palace on the top floor. I have been building the Knights of Blood to handle the powerful foes of the ninetieth floor and above. It is not my first choice to abandon you partway like this, but I think you've shown that you have the strength to make it on your own. However, before then..." 

Everything had been going so well until that moment. Kayaba appeared to be willing to just leave, and the game would continue. But, as Kayaba jammed his sword into the floor, Suguha felt that chill crawl down her spine again, the unshakeable feeling that something was going to go very, very wrong.

"I believe you deserve a reward for exposing my true identity, Kirito. I will grant you the opportunity to fight me in a one-on-one duel, right here and now. No immortality, of course. If you beat me, the game will be over, and all the players will be able to log out of this world. What do you choose?"

Suguha's mind had frozen at the challenge. Would Kirito accept it? Should he? A million scenarios ran through her mind, but the most consistent thing was the idea that Kayaba would have never given Kirito that challenge if he had even the slightest hint that he would lose. _Don't. Fucking. Do. It._

Asuna verbalized her thoughts, telling Kirito that Kayaba was trying to get rid of him, that they should fall back and regroup. It was the obvious logical step. When your enemy throws a surprise at you, it is better to try to come up with an answer than to play right into his plans. 

"He's going to do it..." Midori said sadly, a tear running down her cheek.

"Huh? You can't be sure," Suguha practically begged.

Midori gave her a sad smile. "It's who he is, Sugu. He's going to take the challenge, even if his chances aren't good. He'll probably lose...but running away might be a worse fate than death for him."

"...?"

Her mother hugged her tightly as Suguha could no longer hold back her tears. "Think of it, honey. He's the best player, so he has the best chance. If he runs away and more people die, he is going to blame himself for all of their deaths. Besides, there's no guarantee that he'd have a better chance if he waited anyway..." 

It spoke volumes that minutes had passed before Kirito replied though, as mother and daughter remained locked in an embrace with another young man watching from the side with a sad expression.

"All right. Let's settle this." 

"Kirito!" Asuna cried out desperately, unable to move in his arms.

"I'm sorry, but I can't run away if it means ending this..."

Tears trailed down Asuna's cheeks as she forced a smile. "You aren't going...to die, are you...?"

"Nope...I'm going to win. I'm going to win, and I'm going to bring an end to this world." 

"All right. I believe in you." 

Suguha wasn't as convinced by his words as Asuna, though. They seemed hollow, empty, as if he didn't believe them himself. It was Recon that snapped her out of her sadness, though. "How can you have so little faith in your own brother?" he demanded angrily. "The time for tears is after, but right now your brother is still here, fighting to bring an end to the game! How can you sit there and act as if he is already dead, when there's every chance he can win?" 

She had to hold herself back from slapping him at the start, but as he kept talking, she realized how very right he was. Kirito wasn't dead, not yet. He was going to fight now, and he could win. And if he won...then maybe they could see each other again.

"Thank you, Shinichi," Midori said with a small smile, wiping her eyes. "You're right..."

Suguha wiped her own eyes. _That's it,_ she told herself. If she could just be strong for one more fight, _one_ more, then she might be able to see her brother again.

It was no normal fight though.

By then, Kirito and Kayaba stood opposite each other, swords drawn. Kayaba had deactivated his immortality and equalized their HP bars near the edge of the red zone. A single good hit would result in death for one of them.

"...I have just one request." 

"And that is?" 

"I don't intend to go down easily, but if I do die, ensure that Asuna can't commit suicide." 

Kayaba raised and eyebrow, along with Suguha and Midori as Asuna cried out about how unfair that was. "Very well. I'll see to it that she cannot leave Selmburg." 

With that final condition agreed upon, the two men settled into fighting stances. There was a painfully long moment as Kirito seemed to be searching within himself for the strength he needed to fight, and then he charged.

It didn't take a sword-fighting expert to understand that Kirito had decided to go all-out from the very beginning of the fight. His swords moved faster than Suguha could track with her eyes. She had seen him move fast before, but it seemed like every time the stakes increased, his skill rose to match. He used no sword skills as he danced around Kayaba, nearly obstructing any observers view with the gusts of wind his swords created.

Kayaba never faltered, though. He blocked each of Kirito's blows with absolute ease. The chill running down Suguha's spine increased as Kayba landed a glancing blow on Kirito's cheek, dropping his HP a little more. Even with his immortality disabled...something seemed profoundly _wrong_ about how easily Kayaba was able to deflect Kirito's swords. She had doubts that even some of the greatest swordsmen in history would have been able to fight with such a calm ease against such a ferocious opponent.

A rage built up within her as she realized that even if he wasn't immortal, the system might have still been helping him. There was no way to tell for sure. Maybe it was just blind rage because he was fighting her brother, but in her mind she couldn't believe that he could block so effectively.

Kirito had apparently had enough as well, as he began Eclipse. It was the most powerful Dual Blades skill that she had ever seen him practice. Twenty seven lightning quick strikes from seemingly every angle. His swords again moved faster than should have been possible, but none of his blows went through.

The last strike from Eclipse was a stab with his left sword, and as she shoved Dark Repulser forward with all of his strength, it shattered into fragments upon the crucifix shield.

Suguha fell to her knees, feeling as if it was her heart that had shattered, not Dark Repulser. She couldn't watch what happened next, as she knew her brother was immobilized for a full second because of Eclipse's cool down. Even before Kayaba said, "Farewell, Kirito." she had known the fight was over.

But the gasps from Recon and her mother forced her to look again. She had to blink twice to clear enough tears for her to see that Asuna was in her brother's arms with a massive red streak across her chest. Her HP bar was at zero.

She had taken the hit for him.

How was it possible to feel even more sad than she had a moment before, thinking her brother was dead? She didn't understand...but she wanted those feelings back as she felt her heart weighing her down like a brick. Asuna began to glow, the indication that she was going to disappear soon. "Asuna...why...? Why did you...?" 

"I'm sorry. Goodbye..." 

If Asuna shattering into millions of polygons wasn't enough to render Suguha incoherent, the sight of her brother trying to collect the glowing lights in a pathetic attempt to keep Asuna with him surely was. She crumpled to the ground, no longer even trying to hold back as she sobbed. She felt someone's arm wrap around her, but she didn't know who it was. She didn't care.

There was something very wrong with the world. And it wasn't even that Asuna was dead, and her brother would be soon to follow. How could it be that every time Suguha thought that it couldn't get any worse, it somehow always did? 

That was the case with this situation as well. She heard Kayaba casually say, "Well, that was a surprise. I'm sure I never programmed a way for players to neutralize their own paralysis. I guess sometimes these things just happen." 

How could he be so cold? How was that even possible? Kirito was on the ground in front of him on his hands and knees, tears cascading down his cheeks, and this man was able to casually ponder the workings of his own game? Suguha had half a mind to find a Nerve Gear and try to dive into SAO herself to kill the bastard.

The sound of a sword being drawn got her attention, though. Kirito had found Asuna's rapier on the ground and drew it, silently trying to strike at his opponent. A little bit of hope returned to her, but it was quickly extinguished. His motions were slow though, as if someone had turned the stream to a hundredth of its normal speed. The attacks were so pathetic, so empty of life, that Suguha couldn't help but scream, "Just end it!" 

It was so much worse than him just dying, to see him so broken and hopeless...

As if Kayaba had heard her, he shoved his blade through Kirito's chest. She didn't understand the relief she felt as his HP bar dropped to zero finally. Why was she so relieved? Was she that selfish? 

He began to glow white, his body slowly disintegrating, but then...

"..!" 

His arm began to move. His body was falling apart, but somehow he found the strength to defy the death sequence. With a horrible cry, he pushed Asuna's rapier forward and through Kayaba's chest.

The paladin's HP hit zero as well, and Suguha thought she saw a smile on her brother's face as he and Heathcliff both shattered in unison.

Her tears returned in full as the reality of the situation was no longer debatable. Kirito—her brother, was dead. Unbidden, memories of their past began to assault her mind, leaving her in an incoherent mess of tears.

She was only faintly aware of an artificial female voice saying, "On November 7th at 2:55 PM, the game has been cleared. Repeat: the game has been cleared."

But the words brought her no comfort.


	7. Worlds Collide

Okay, whatever, this chapter will have to do as the last one. See the end of this chapter for details about possible sequels/additional chapters.

Worlds Collide

"Are we there yet?"

Midori shook her head, trying to hold back a laugh. "Sugu, honey, I can only drive so fast!"

They were currently driving through a suburb that had taken them about twenty minutes to reach. It had been less than an hour since both Suguha and her mother had seen Kirito die in SAO, plunging them into an abyss of sadness. Fortunately, a call from a government employee named Seijirou Kikuoka informing them that both Kirito and Asuna had, in fact, woke up from SAO unharmed was more than sufficient to save them from the inevitable period of depression that they were both headed for.

Kikuoka worked for the government's virtual division—more specifically, the task force that was created to handle the SAO incident. He had first made contact with the Kirigaya family a few days before the stream went live, informing them of his intentions to broadcast Kirito's gameplay. Since then, he had made every effort to accommodate any requests that Suguha or her mother might have. He even took it upon himself to move Kirito from a hospital into a safe house that the government typically used for people in witness protection. It had become a standard precaution for anyone that Kirito associated closely with—leaving the list pretty short—to prevent anyone who disliked Kirito from going after his friends as a means of getting to him.

As amazing as her brother was, Suguha was well aware that there was a group of people that disliked him. Some held a grudge because he didn't save their family members that were also in SAO, while others just hated his guts or thought he was a monster for killing people. Either way, there had been multiple death threats made for Kirito, Asuna, and a few others that he was friends with.

Suguha couldn't help but feel nervous as her mother pulled into a familiar driveway beside a government-issued SUV. What would Kirito think of her? Would he go through with his intention to reconnect and make up for past mistakes? Would he be angry that she had watched him for the last year and a half without him knowing?

"Come on, Sugu," her mother said as she turned the car off and stepped out. "Let's go see your brother!"

Taking a deep breath, she opened her door and stepped out, trying to think of what she'd say to him. Should she be casual or formal? Should she call him Kirito, Kazuto, or big brother? Would he want her to hug him?

She ran out of time to ponder her questions as the front door of the house opened and a man wearing a rather nice suit stepped out to greet them with a bow. "Hello, Mrs. Kirigaya, and Suguha, please come right this way. Kirito is awake and ready to accept visitors."

Midori thanked him, and mother and daughter followed the man into the house. "Has he been told about the stream yet?" her mother asked.

The man nodded. "He and Asuna both were told. They appeared to be upset by it, but not really angry, if I had to judge."

Before she quite knew it, they had walked through the entrance, the living room, the kitchen, the halls, and finally arrived at the master bedroom. The door was open, and she froze for a second as she saw Kirito—her brother—sitting up in the bed with his eyes open, having a conversation with someone a bit to the side that she couldn't quite see. Asuna was sitting beside him with her head resting on his shoulder as she listened to him and the person he was talking to.

In that moment, all of the questions Suguha had asked herself, all of her preparation, it all vanished from her mind. Without even really knowing what she was doing, she shouted, "Big brother!" as she ran past her mother into the room and leaped onto the bed to hug him, inadvertently pushing Asuna aside a bit.

She wasn't really sure why she had started crying, but she didn't care as she felt thin, frail arms wrap themselves around her back. "Hey, Sugu, it's been awhile, eh?"

Another hand rested on her back, but she wasn't sure whose. For now, she didn't care as she pulled back a bit in the hug to look into his eyes. "That's the best you've got?" she demanded, now laughing. "It's been awhile?"

He smiled at her. "I'm not sure what to say. Mr. Kikuoka told us that everyone has been able to watch what I've been doing in SAO for the last year and a half. So..." he glanced down.

It hit her like a brick wall. He was nervous! All of her miserable attempts at figuring out what he would think of her and she never once thought about what he might feel when they reconnected. What would it be like for someone that had fought a war for two years to suddenly come back to his family and know that they had been able to watch almost every moment of it? He had killed people, nearly died more times than she cared to remember, and had become a living legend. In hindsight, she found it ridiculous that she hadn't realized that he might be insecure about what he had become.

She didn't get to reassure him right away, though, as her mother approached and bent over to hug both of her children together. "Hey mom," he said simply, giving her a smile as well.

There were a few tears streaking down her mother's cheeks as well when the woman pulled back from the embrace and glanced from Kirito to Asuna. "I'm so relieved that you're okay..." she wiped her sleeve. "When we saw you fight against Heathcliff...we thought..."

"That we died?" Kirito asked softly.

"I'll give you guys a bit of time," a male voice said from the side. Sugu turned her head in time to see Mr. Kikuoka bow and leave the room.

Midori nodded at Kirito's question, and turned her attention solely to Asuna, who dipped her head in a respectful greeting. "It's also a great pleasure to meet the one girl my son has ever taken an interest in. Thank you for being there for him in the game, Asuna."

Asuna's cheeks were red as she bowed her head further, shaking it from side to side. "It was my pleasure, but really he is the one that I'm grateful too. Without Kirito...I don't think I'd have survived the game."

"You-" her mother began to reply, but was cut off as Suguha's cell phone rang loudly.

"Oh!" Sugu exclaimed, grabbing the phone from her pocket. She instinctively hovered her thumb over the ignore button, but hesitated when she realized it was Recon. He must have been worried about her...

"Sorry...it's a friend who was watching the last fight with us. He must be worried sick about me and mom..."

Everyone gave her a nod of approval, so she answered the call.

"LEAFA!" came his screeching voice through the speaker, causing her to wince and move the phone a bit back from her ear. She flicked on the speakerphone setting to avoid damaging her eardrums.

"Jeez, Recon! Don't shout!"

"Sorry! Where are you? I came over to make sure you were okay when the stream went down, but you don't seem to be home...are you okay?"

"Ehh...yeah I'm fine." An idea struck her, causing her to break into a wide grin. She clicked the little button that turned on the phone's camera. It took a quick moment to initialize, but when it had she blinked once. "See? I'm fine."

"But-" he began, but froze as Suguha tilted her phone so that Kirito and Asuna both came into view.

"And so are they," she added.

"Uhm...hello?" Kirito replied uncertainly.

It took Recon a minute to comprehend what he was seeing. "W-Wait...is that...really them? Kirito and-"

"Yeah, I'll call you later." She abruptly hung the call up, but she heard a whining sound before she could click the button.

With a shake of her head, Suguha apologized to the other three people. "He's a friend from school," she explained.

"It's really weird to be recognized by someone I've never seen..." her brother muttered.

"Yeah..." Asuna's acknowledgment was a bit drawn out as she yawned and returned her head to his shoulder. "Sorry...I'm going to use your shoulder as a pillow for awhile longer." Kirito only smiled and snaked an arm around her waist.

"Uh, not for nothing...but how are you alive anyway?" Suguha couldn't help but ask as she could tell neither Kirito or Asuna seemed inclined to make the next move in the conversation.

Kirito grimaced. "We don't exactly know..."

"It doesn't matter," her mother said simply. "You're both here now, and the game is over. We're so proud of you, _Kirito_."

"Eh? Shouldn't you call me Kazuto?"

Suguha chuckled at that. "Probably, yeah. But...we have seen you as Kirito for the last year and a half, and so has the rest of the world. I doubt you'll be able to avoid the name."

"Besides, I like Kirito better," Asuna said, tilting her head up to be able to see his response.

He rolled his eyes, causing Asuna to giggle. "Whatever. I don't mind...I guess."

"Asuna?" came a voice from the doorway. A quick glance was all it took for Suguha to recognize Shouzou, Kyouko, and Kouichirou Yuuki. She recognized the voice as Asuna's father, Shouzou.

"Huh..." Asuna blinked as she sat back up. "Mom! Dad! Brother..." tears built up in her eyes as she recognized her family.

It was then that the formal appearance of her family vanished as the three of them hurried forward to hug her one by one, causing the other family in the room to smile at the scene. Kouichirou was last, and after he pulled back from his hug he bowed his head deeply. "I'm so sorry...Asuna. It's all my fault that you were trapped there...it was supposed to be me."

Asuna appeared genuinely shocked at her brother's apology. She took a moment to react, but when she did it was only to shake her head with a smile. "No, no...don't blame yourself. I'm glad that it happened..."

"Because I met Kirito there," she explained with a smile, leaning back onto his shoulder, causing him to chuckle a little.

Kouichirou chuckled as well and bowed lightly to Kirito before shaking his hand gently, clearly aware of the weak state that he and Asuna were in. "Mr. Kirigaya, I speak for all three of us when I thank you for taking care of Asuna."

Kirito's glance passed over each of the Yuuki family members briefly before he dipped his head. "It's a pleasure to meet you, and I believe that Asuna and I were there for each other. She helped me just as many times as I helped her, probably more, actually."

"We are still grateful," Shouzou added, shaking Kirito's hand as well.

Kyouko was last to meet Kirito. She shook his hand briefly, and then paused for a long moment. "I will admit, my first impression of you was not overly positive. I thought someone of your standing would not be an appropriate match for my daughter." Suguha noticed Asuna's fists clench. "But...you have grown on me greatly. Your character and work ethic is beyond impressive, along with your skill. I'm told that you are quite the programmer for you age."

"Thank you, Mrs. Yuuki," Kirito said sincerely, bowing his head low.

Her mother nodded, and turned to Asuna. "I have tried to watch as much of your time together as I could, to build an understanding of why you fell for this boy. It's clear that you are happy with him, and he has other impressive qualities besides those that I mentioned. We see a bright future for him, and because of that we have agreed to support your decision to marry him."

"Huh? Really?" Asuna was dumbfounded. She only bowed her head low and said shakily, "Thank you! Thank you...I was so scared that I'd come back to this world...only to lose him."

Shouzou stepped forward again then, and spoke directly to Kirito, a dead serious expression on his face. "Do you intend to continue your relationship with Asuna in this world?"

"Of course I do." A chill ran down Suguha's spine at the sheer conviction that he spoke with. There was no doubting his commitment to his words.

That brought a smile to the older man's face. "I am glad to hear that. It seems we should formally introduce ourselves. My name is Shouzou Yuuki. This is Kyouko, my wife, and our son, Kouichirou."

Kirito dipped his head. "Kazuto Kirigaya."

There was a bit of an awkward pause, and then Shouzou asked, "Do the two of you have any idea what you intend to do now?"

Suguha paid close attention as her brother and Asuna exchanged glances, somehow managing to convey thoughts silently. A moment later he sighed and said, "I think for now we just want to recover. We're going to have some pretty serious physical therapy to go through judging by our conditions."

"I mean after that," Asuna's father clarified patiently. "Do you intend to return home, Asuna?"

"You would let me leave before I finished school?" she asked, surprised.

"We spoke with Kirito's mother on the topic of your relationship, and we have agreed to support whatever decisions the two of you make together. You've lived on your own for years now, so if you want to continue with that path we wouldn't stop you." Asuna again seemed surprised by her mother's words.

"Can I ask why?" the frail girl asked nervously. "I mean...before SAO you never would have approved of Kirito or let me make my own choices, right?"

Kyouko reached a hand out to cup Asuna's cheek. "It might have been hard for you to understand at the time, but everything I ever did was because I love you and I wanted you to be successful. The work ethic that both you and Kirito displayed in SAO, along with how much the game has matured the both of you, has more than convinced me that you are ready to make your own decisions and that you will be just fine."

Asuna sighed in relief, looking quite content with the answer. She glanced up at Kirito, who was watching her curiously. "I think...I want to stay with Kirito, no matter what he decides to do."

Shouzou nodded at that, as if it was expected. "So that leaves the question, what do you intend to do, Kirito?"

"I intend to catch up with school as quickly as possible. There's a project I need to work on."

"Are you referring to restoring Yui?" Kouichirou asked, earning a solemn nod from her brother. "We...may be able to help you with that a bit, if you want."

"Huh?"

"You can help Yui?" Asuna almost begged.

Kouichirou held his hands up. "W-wait, don't get too excited, Asuna. We don't know exactly what state the files Kirito saved are in. We might have no chance of rebuilding her program, but there's something significant that we possess that could help Kirito a lot."

"Well then tell him," she demanded.

With a chuckle, Asuna's brother said, "My father is the CEO of RECT Progress, and I work closely with him at the company. We took over control of the SAO servers from Argus after it went bankrupt. We also cloned the SAO operating system, Cardinal, and we use a stripped down version of it to run our own VRMMO, Alfheim Online. It's possible that Yui's program cannot function without Cardinal, and if that's the case we could somewhat replicate the environment of SAO."

Kirito let out a relieved sigh at that. "Yeah, that would be great. Thank you so much. I was worried that she might not work in an isolated environment, so it's great to know that an alternative exists."

Asuna's father stepped back into the conversation then and put a hand on Kirito's shoulder. "You let us know if you need anything at all. We'll let you take the first crack at it, but don't be ashamed to ask us for help."

"You're extremely generous," Kirito replied, bowing his head in gratitude. "Thank you so much."

"Nonsense. We owe you a debt that can never be repaid."

There was a slight knock at the door, and everyone turned to see Mr. Kikuoka walk in. Everyone already knew who he was, of course, as he personally communicated with each family that had a SAO player relocated because of the stream.

"Hello, everyone. I'm sorry to intrude, but the doctor wants to do his examinations of the two of them now if that's okay."

Suguha groaned at that, causing Kirito to chuckle and pat her on the head. "Go on, Sugu, it'll be fine. I promise we'll catch up later, okay?"

"Fine, on one condition." She built up her strength and looked him straight in the eyes. "I don't care what your reason is, or what happens. _No,_ almost dying! We've had to watch you come close to death so many damn times in the last couple weeks. It better be over now."

She almost felt bad at the guilty expression he suddenly had, but she felt like he deserved it for all the misery he caused her. "I'm sorry, Sugu. I promise we won't get into any trouble, okay?"

"Deal."

She and the others said their brief goodbyes to Kirito and Asuna, even though Suguha herself didn't plan on actually leaving the house, as she could wait around for awhile until the doctor finished with them.

The Yuuki family left after speaking with Kikuoka briefly, and Suguha was forced to convince her mother to let her stay, as Midori really needed to get back to work. In the end, the argument that it would take her an extra half hour to drive back to the house to drop off Suguha won, and Midori left her there.

A little time passed as she relaxed in a thoroughly cushioned reclining chair. She reflected that it seemed strange that her reaction to Kirito beating SAO was more of a relief than something that made her happy. Maybe that was because she had formed an expectation that he _would_ win, rather than hoping that he would come out on top. That could definitely be the cause of her current feelings of relief, and the happiness she had thought she'd feel.

The relief she felt wasn't even uplifting. Rather, it was an exhausting feeling. Again, maybe that was because she had been through an emotional roller coaster for the last month and it was just her own bodies' stress building up, but she couldn't be bothered to care as she fell asleep in the comfy chair.

* * *

"Where's the doctor at?"

"He'll be here in a minute, but I wanted to talk to you about something first."

"Huh?"

"Exactly three hundred players have yet to wake up..."

"..."

"Are you sure they aren't just slower...?"

"Everyone else woke up within 20 minutes of the game ending. It's been an hour and a half now, and there's been no change..."

"No..."

"So, what do you need from us?"

* * *

Added the end teaser mostly just to show that the story would kind of progress through the Fairy Dance arc if it were to continue. Now, there's a couple options for a sequel:

1) This story would continue. I'd rewrite this chapter and have it work a little differently, but the story would basically just continue from where we're at. Would shift to Kirito/Asuna POV's mostly.

2) Separate 'sequel'. This sequel would use the concept of Kirito being under surveillance and people being able to watch him, but it would also have something else unique to it. Basically the story would start with the encounter Kirito and Asuna had with Kayaba. I'd change a lot of Kayaba's reasoning behind SAO (won't reveal the stuff I thought up so people can't copy it if I choose to not write the story for awhile), but the end of that meeting would result in Kirito waking up in the real world _as_ Kirito. Meaning, he would have his SAO avatar as his real life body, with all the goodies that would entail.

Obviously this would venture off a bit more from the canon, though the fairy dance arc would probably still be the next logical step in the story.

As for more chapters in _Worlds Apart,_ I'm not committing to anything, but I'd like to do the Silica  & Lisbeth chapters at some point. No interest in doing the safe zone murder section. Interestingly, the Moonlit Black Cats segment happened _two_ days after the game was six months old. It could be interesting to write, as it would basically be Suguha's first experience seeing her brother in the game.

PS: I'm also going to write a oneshot about Zekken trying to convince Kirito to fight her at 100% (like two swords, fully trying, etc.). Will be more interesting than it sounds, and it will follow canon only.


End file.
